Don't make me frog it. You won't like me when I frog it.

Cardigans for all – one very large, one incomplete and one very small

I started my grey cabled cardigan at the end of November/beginning of December, back when it would have been useful! It would have been a fast knit, as it was worked up in super chunky yarn and 10 mm needles, but Mr BAM’s big grey jumper took precedence. I found I only had it in me to work on one big grey WIP at a time, and I needed a big dose of colourful crochet to cheer me up again afterwards!

The pattern was the one on the cover of Sirdar’s Big Bamboo Knits 2, and I knitted it in shade 202 Ferny, because that was on sale at the time. The shawl necked, cabled cardigan is easily the most technical garment I’ve ever knitted, but I enjoyed the challenge.

Although I tend to refer to it as a cardigan, the pattern does call it a jacket which is probably more appropriate as it is thick and warm. It’s just the thing to throw on to go outside when there’s a chill in the air of a spring evening, so maybe my timing wasn’t that bad after all!

I’d planned to wear my newly finished cardigan/jacket to one of my knitting groups this week, but a combination of having to wait in for a plumber to finish fixing my toilet, and some torrential rain, meant that I had to miss it this week. I was still keen to show it off, so I posted a slightly blurry picture on Facebook instead, something I don’t usually bother to do because I figure if friends and family wanted to see my craft stuff they’d click on the blog links I post. I think I’ll have to stick to posting links to the blog in the future, because although I had lots of lovely comments, I also had lots of requests to make this cardigan for friends and family! It’s such a compliment when someone likes something you’ve made enough to want one of their own, but I’ve yet to find a pattern I’ve enjoyed enough to commit to making another garment straight away. Give me a year or two and maybe… but probably not!

This leaves only one more knitted WIP to finish off, my short sleeved cardigan in Stylecraft’s Alpaca DK. I’ve only done the back and half a front on that one, so it’s going to take a while to finish off, but I will endeavour to try to do it before the baby arrives in September!As well as working my way through all my long-term WIPs I have of course still been busy with making baby things too. Before I show you a picture, I think a little bit of background regarding my colour choice is needed!

I am lucky enough to be a part of several local knitting groups, attended by some lovely ladies, who are all more mature than me (and yes, that is me trying to be diplomatic about them being older than me, but really taking certain people’s sense of humour into account, using the word “mature” may be misleading. Ladies, you know who you are!) This sometimes leads to very different tastes when it comes to our knitting choices, specifically the kinds of colours chosen for baby clothes.

I hate pastel coloured baby cardigans. A lot. Most of all I hate lemon acrylic, followed by mint, then pale pinks and blues. Lilac is the least offensive, but I’m still not a fan. White is okay, but it always seems like a horribly impractical choice for any child’s clothing. I just don’t like pastels in almost any context, but putting them on a newborn baby just seems to make them look very angry and pink!

Needless to say my objection to pastel coloured baby cardigans was controversial to a lot of my knitting friends and straight up scandalous to others. Nobody seemed to be able to picture a baby wearing a stronger version of any of the colours we were talking about. I tried to explain that I didn’t necessarily object to any of the colours in a more vibrant shade, but to no avail.

So I decided the only thing to do was to make a cardigan in shades I did like, but I might (and it’s only a little might) have gone too far with this sunflower yellow crocheted cardigan. (Sweet Yoke pattern by Clare Collier available from Ravelry). What do you think?

I love it, and even Mr BAM has warmed to the colour scheme. I haven’t yet shown it to any of my knitting group friends, but I suspect they will be polite but privately disapproving!

It’s difficult because I think some of my knitting friends would love to make something for my baby, but what they’d really like is to make the same kinds of things they made for their own children in those same colours. I don’t want to put them off, but equally I don’t want to just humour them and only dress the baby once or twice in something they’ve spent hours making.

I don’t think there’s an easy answer here. I think I’ll just have to work on my (non-existent) diplomatic skills!

My little one had lots of kitted stuff when she was a newborn, luckily, I’m a fan of pastel colours. My little one has very olive skin so they were complimentary on her, we did have some super vibrant one too, I loved them just the same. Babies look good in knitted things I think 🙂

Really I shouldn’t be so fussy! I’m very lucky that I have lovely people in my life who want to make things for my little one, but as they have asked what I would like it’s not too rude to tell them! Part of the problem is that I don’t like the colour or quality of a lot of the usual baby yarns. So I’m not just picky about colour, I’m a yarn snob too!

Love the grey jacket but ADORE the baby cardy. I think most people will go with what the Mum of the baby wants. I totally agree with you about pastels though. I made a dark purple blanket for my godson and some unusual coloured cardies for various babies that have come along. I don’t want to knit with pastel either! Baby clothes have become much more sophisticated recently. Why don’t you tell your group that you’re basing the baby’s stuff on a certain colour scheme, which will be a big hint they will hopefully take! Or ask them to use white.

That matches my new socks-in-progress perfectly – I don’t like wishy washy pastels either, but I DO like to see a baby in white. They don’t get dirty until they start crawling around, so you can put them in white, luxury yarn for about a year. Then it’s machine washable acrylic and dungarees!

Yes, I’m starting to cave a bit on the white! I’m crocheting a cardigan in superwash merino in bright colours at the moment but the picture on the pattern is in off white, and even I have to admit it looks gorgeous!